Drug Design, Development and Therapy
September 1, 2026
Xiaoying Cui, Wutao Chen, Jinyu Wang et al.
Purpose: Postoperative anxiety is common in surgical patients and may impair recovery, especially in the patients with preoperative anxiety. However, effective strategies for treating postoperative anxiety remain limited. We hypothesized that esketamine could reduce postoperative anxiety in patients with preoperative anxiety undergoing major abdominal tumor surgery. Patients and Methods: 180...
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
September 1, 2026
N Hartman, D Ivkic, M C Dorczok et al.
Neuropsychiatric manifestations of Long COVID (LC) frequently include post-exertional malaise (Cheng et al. , 2025), fatigue, cognitive dysfunction and impairment, sleep disturbances, post-traumatic stress, autonomic dysregulation, pain, inner tension, psychomotor retardation, aberrations in appetite and weight (Badenoch et al. , 2022; O'Mahoney et al. , 2025), showing substantial clinical and...
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
September 1, 2026
A Nunes, J E Cunningham, B Leden et al.
Abstract Background Use of intravenous ketamine or intranasal esketamine for depression is frequently limited due to resource requirements and cost. Alternative treatment models have used oral, sublingual or intranasal racemic ketamine, but optimal doses and frequency of administration remain unclear. Dosing modelled from the standard 0.5-1.0mg/kg twice weekly IV ketamine result in transient...
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
September 1, 2026
S Makhoul, N Abdulameer
Abstract Background Esketamine intranasal spray is FDA-approved for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), but it is not licensed for use in bipolar disorder due to the risk of antidepressants inducing manic or hypomanic episodes. To date, there is limited data on the use of intranasal esketamine in bipolar disorder, and no previous reports of using esketamine as an add-on treatment in patients...
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
September 1, 2026
Abstract Background Antidepressant effects of ketamine and esketamine are short lived, often lasting only weeks after multiple treatments. With that in mind, it has been considered addition of psychotherapy may enhance outcomes. One approach, knows as Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) focuses on "integration " of the dissociative experience induced by ketamine, and suggests this may produce...
American Journal of Psychiatry
September 1, 2026
Continuing Questions About Esketamine 5 Years After Approval: Response to Ahmed et al.
The Brown University Psychopharmacology Update
September 1, 2026
A systematic review and meta‐analysis encompassing 26 ran‐domized controlled trials (RCTs) has concluded that both single and repeated infusions of ketamine significantly improve suicidality and depressive symptoms in patients with a major depressive episode. Most of the serious adverse events that were reported in the included trials were determined to be unrelated to study treatment.
The Brown University Psychopharmacology Update
September 1, 2026
Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) who received 4 weeks of buprenorphine treatment following a single infusion of ketamine experienced a significant reduction in suicidal ideation compared with ketamine plus placebo, a randomized, double‐blind trial has found. No serious treatment‐related adverse events were reported. Study results were published online May 19, 2026 in the American...
Psychiatry International
September 1, 2026
Damian Swieczkowski, Michal Pruc, Lukasz Szarpak et al.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) and treatment-resistant depression (TRD) continue to drive interest in ketamine-family compounds and psilocybin, but antidepressant efficacy alone does not establish whether these interventions can be evaluated reliably or implemented responsibly. We conducted a structured narrative review using targeted PubMed/MEDLINE searches through 21 July 2026,...
Medical Science
August 30, 2026
Julia Rogała, Kinga Polityńska, Dominika Ruszel et al.
Treatment-resistant depression occurs in roughly one-third of individuals diagnosed with depression.Ketamine and esketamine have appeared as innovative antidepressant treatments that target the glutamatergic system and deliver promising therapeutic options for patients unresponsive to conventional monoaminergic antidepressants.This review delivers a complete analysis of the mechanisms of...
Neurotoxicology
August 30, 2026
Mola Mohammadi, Amin Saeedi, Ali Asghar Kheirkhah Vakilabad et al.
Ketamine presents a modern pharmacological paradox, acting as both a rapid-acting antidepressant and a drug of abuse with significant cognitive consequences. While its therapeutic potential is revolutionary, chronic exposure is increasingly associated with persistent and specific deficits in episodic and working memory. This narrative review moves beyond descriptive lists of ketamine's effects...
Bipolar Disorders
August 30, 2026
Chih‐Cheng Lin, Lien‐chung Wei
OBJECTIVES: To contextualize the real-world findings of repeated intravenous ketamine infusions for treatment-resistant bipolar depression (TRBPD) and identify priorities for safer, more durable clinical implementation. METHODS: We provide a focused commentary on Zhou et al. (2023) and integrate selected evidence concerning inflammatory and metabolic correlates, neurocognitive outcomes, and...
European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
August 29, 2026
Esketamine-based treatment, depression-specific metacognitive training, and their combination in treatment-resistant depression: 6-month trajectories of depressive symptoms and rumination in a multicenter observational study.
Neuropsychopharmacology
August 29, 2026
Briana K Chen, Brenna L Williams, Anna Darling et al.
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) exon VI promoter is implicated in mediating activity-induced synthesis of hippocampal BDNF. BDNF is implicated in (R,S)-ketamine's antidepressant effects, but its role in (R,S)-ketamine-mediated prophylaxis is unknown. Using BDNF-e6 mice, in which promoter VI-driven BDNF production is disrupted, we tested its necessity for (R,S)-ketamine's prophylactic...
Psychoanalytic Inquiry
August 28, 2026
Diana Moga
Autistic individuals are more susceptible to trauma due to higher baseline anxiety and overwhelm; poorer episodic memory; and the frequent lack of a sense of community, safety, and belonging that are both protective and needed to heal from trauma. Furthermore, many autistic adults have adopted a false self to get by in a neurotypical world and are often cut off from their affective, embodied...
Expert Opinion on Drug Safety
August 28, 2026
Roger S McIntyre
1.0 According to the 2023 iteration of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factor studies (GBD) assessing 375 injuries and diseases and 12 mental disorders, mental disorders are now th...
The American journal of hospice & palliative care
August 28, 2026
Krishna Hanubal, Akul Munjal, Jino Park et al.
PurposeDespite most psychedelic substances remaining Schedule I, clinical research exploring psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) in oncology is expanding. We sought to assess oncology providers' attitudes toward and understanding of PAT.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional survey of healthcare professionals involved in oncology across five academic institutions in California, South Carolina,...
August 28, 2026
Holly Hepburn
Renewed clinical interest in psychedelics has drawn attention to their challenging effects, yet most phenomenological and psychometric work derives from psilocybin, leaving cross-substance variation underexplored. This thesis employed codebook thematic analysis to examine challenging experiences across DMT, psilocybin, MDMA, and ketamine, utilising 146 naturalistic accounts collected from...
European Neuropsychopharmacology
August 27, 2026
correction
Erratum to "Long-term treatment with esketamine nasal spray in patients with treatment resistant depression: Results from the ESCAPE-LTE study" [European Neuropsychopharmacology 107 (2026) 112801].
Psychopharmacology
August 27, 2026
Shayan Eghdami, Mahsa Boroon, Amir-Abbas Keshavarz-Akhlaghi et al.
Approximately 40-60% of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) fail to respond to standard serotonergic and behavioral therapies. This systematic review evaluates the efficacy, durability, and safety of ketamine, a glutamate modulator, for moderate to severe OCD. Following PRISMA guidelines, we searched electronic databases through January 2026 for studies treating moderate-to-severe...